The Presence of God and the Glory of God
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Coronavirus.
We are only heading to a place where the Lord God’s presence is.
1 The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ 2 I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” 4 When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’ ” 6 Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.
Because of their sin of idolatry with the Golden calf, God decided that from that time on He would not go up with them to the promised land but instead will send His angel before them.
God being Holy could not stand this stiff-necked people. Stiff-necked does not mean they have difficulty turning their heads it means that they were haughty or stubborn.
A Stiff-necked People!
In deciding not to go up with the people to the promised land, God still showed His mercy and grace.
Mercy by exercising His restraint, He knew of the possibility of Him consuming or wiping out this whole nation along the way if they would continue in their stubbornness.
God showed His grace.
By keeping His Promise - His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
By offering His Protection - by driving out and fighting against their enemies, the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.
By guaranteeing His Provision - By still taking them to a land flowing with milk and honey.
So they have been guaranteed the three P’s, God’s Promise, Protection and Provision but they will be missing the most important P of all.
God’s Presence.
They will be missing God’s presence.
In our prayers how many times do we pray for protection, Lord keep us from contracting this coronavirus? Keep our whole family safe, protect us Lord.
How often do we ask for His provision. Lord may we keep our jobs, keep the income flowing.
We hold God to His promises, how? We bring up Who He is in His word, God You are our refuge and strength.
One of the most quoted Psalms nowadays with this current pandemic is Psalm 91, specifically verse 3 - For He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
People skip the most important part of this Psalm in verse 1:
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
Don’t miss out on the primary importance of the presence of God in your life.
What this passage is teaching us is that you can be protected, safe in your homes from the coronavirus, you may have money in your bank accounts, food on your table and a roof above your heads, you may have all of this because God is a merciful and gracious God and yet miss out on what is most important part - the presence of God Himself!
Lesson 1:
Do not seek just the benefits of life, seek the source of all benefits - God Himself.
David said in
4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
The One Thing!
God Himself and His presence.
So the people of Israel realized this, that when God said He was no longer going up to them, they mourned and they stripped themselves of their ornaments or jewelries.
The next thing that happened in this story is amazing. We have to learn from this guy named Moses. Probably the greatest man of God in the Old Testament.
Moses sought the presence of God and He had the courage to intercede for the people.
What He did was he pitched a tent outside the camp called the tent of meeting, away from the people, symbolically standing as a mediator between God and the people. A pillar of cloud which is God’s Holy presence would descend and stand at the tent.
And there He communed with God and the Bible said that the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
Moses knew what it was like to be in the presence of the Lord.
You have to love this Moses, and he interceded for the people.
12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”
You see the boldness of this man of God. Asking these things.. if you don’t go with me Lord, do not even bring us out from here.
Remember that this is the same Moses when God first sent him to Egypt.. this is the same Moses who said,, “I can’t do it, I am a man who is slow in speech and tongue” send someone else Lord!”
What a tremendous change! Time between is just within a year..
Lesson 2
Expect a Dramatic Change in You that the Presence of God can Bring!
Don’t underrate or sell short what God can do in your life… talk here about people’s giftedness or lack of it..
Your inabilities become God’s showcase of His abilities!
when you lack those natural inabilities that is when God can work.. about myself how introverted, I am not a good public speaker, the charismatic or salesman type of guy, I used to be a very boring person --- used to — oh I still am? It doesn’t matter because that is when my inability God can showcase His ability. Since God called me I just depend on His power alone to fill the gaps..
God can do the same for you and even more Hallelujah!
I would change what I said earlier — your inabilities become God’s showcase of His power!
God can use you to as far as you are willing to be used. God can take you to as far as you are willing to go.
The question is how willing are you to be used and sent by God?
Continuing on this story with Moses..
17 And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” 18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
This man Moses did not stop with just being in the presence of God. He asked the Lord: “Show me Your glory”.
So Moses sought the presence of God, and He got it.. but he did not stop there.
Moses understood that he needed to go up to the next level. That is the beauty of God, the more you stay in His presence, you glimpse more of His beauty and you crave more of Him.
Our finite bodies can only take so much of the infinite beauty of God.. and Moses wanted more.. I experienced your presence God, now he asked “Show me your glory.”
So what is the difference between..
The Presence of God and the Glory of God.
In God’s presence there is fullness of joy, you experience His grace in abundance. But seeing God’s glory is experiencing the full extent of His Holiness, His beauty, His grandeur and His majesty. Experiencing the glory of God is the closest we can get to seeing His face.
Lesson 3:
Seek the Face of God by asking to see His glory.
This is taking your relationship with God to the next level. Desire it.
Actually I believe you don’t have to tell anyone to see the glory of God. Those who experience the presence of God will naturally desire to see His glory. There is so much more of God that we can discover and experience.
The rest of the story is that Moses saw the glory of God, in the next chapter of Exodus he went up again to Mt Sinai, and there God renewed the covenant with him but something special happened to him, he saw the glory of God.. after 40 days and forty nights, Moses came down from the mountain holding the two tablets.. and the skin of his face shown that he had to put a veil over his face so that the people can look at him.
Lesson 4:
Seeing the Glory of God is reflecting the beauty of God.
Is this still the sign of seeing the glory of God today? That our faces will shine like Moses did?
The glory of God in the face of Moses is a foreshadow of the glory of God that we can experience today in the Lord Jesus Christ. The shining face of Moses represents the glory of the Old Covenant, which already faded away.. since we have entered the new covenant, Through the finished work of Jesus, we can gaze into the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ… and we do not have to put a veil to cover us.
15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Now we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and we no longer have to put a veil, because God has shown in our hearts, as He changes us from glory to glory to give the world the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
We are the reflection of the glory of God to this dark world. Can we say together, Lord, show us Your glory!
When you have seen the glory of God you cannot contain it..
You will show the world
The Light of the Knowledge of the glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ.